Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 00:38:14 GMT
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<title>Logic And Functional Programming Group -- SFU</title>
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<h2><center>Logic And Functional Programming Group -- SFU</center></h2>
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  <dt><strong>Address:</strong>
       <dd><em>Simon Fraser University<br>
	    Burnaby, B.C.<br>
	    Canada  V5A 1S6<br>
            Phone: (604) 291-3426<br>
	    FAX:   (604) 291-3045<br></em>
  <dt><strong>Director:</strong>
       <dd><!WA0><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Dahl/">
	    Ver&oacute;nica Dahl</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
  <dt><strong>Contact:</strong>
       <dd><!WA1><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Popowich/">
	    Fred Popowich</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
  <dt><strong>Members:</strong>
       <dd>Harvey Abramson (Department of Computer Science, Aizu University)
       <dd><!WA2><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Ait-Kaci/">
	    Hassan A&iuml;t-Kaci</A> (MPR Teltech - Senior NSERC Chair in
	    Intelligent Software Systems
       <dd>Romas Aleliunas (Center for Systems Science, SFU)
       <dd>Steve Thomason (Department of Mathematice, SFU)
       <dd>Warren Burton (School of Computing Science, SFU)
       <dd>Phil Winne (Faculty of Education, SFU)
       <dd><!WA3><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Delgrande/">
	    Jim Delgrande</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
       <dd><!WA4><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Havens/">
	    Bill Havens</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
       <dd><!WA5><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Han/">
	    Jia-Wei Han</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
       <dd><!WA6><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Hafer/">
	    Lou Hafer</A> (School of Computing Science, SFU)
       <dd><!WA7><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/Faculty/Harrop/">
	    Ron Harrop</A> (Department of Mathematics, SFU)
       <dd>David Poole (Department of Computer Science, UBC)
       <dd>Michael Rochemont (Department of Linguistics, UBC)
       <dd>Bill Wadge (Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria)
       <dd>Maarten van Emden (Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria)
  <dt><strong>Associate Members:</strong>
       <dd>Richard DeArmond (Department of Linguistics, SFU)
       <dd><!WA8><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/css/members/jones.html">
	    John Jones</A> (School of Engineering, SFU)
  <dt><strong>Visiting Scientists:</strong>
       <dd>Dominique Vellard (D&eacute;partement d'informatique, Universit&eacute; de Nantes)
       <dd><!WA9><A HREF="http://www.sciences.umoncton.ca/infoque/PAULT.HTM">Paul Tarau</A> (D&eacute;partement d'informatique, Universit&eacute; de Moncton)
  <dt><strong>Post-Docs:</strong>
       <dd><!WA10><A HREF="http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/people/ResearchStaff/jamie/">
	    Jamie Andrews</A>
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<h3>Genesis</h3>
The Logic and Functional Programming Group was formally established
in 1990 as an independent research group under SFU's Policy AC-35. It is a
strongly interdisciplinary group comprising members from six SFU units
(Computing Sciences, Linguistics, Mathematics, Centre for Systems Science,
Education, Engineering), two UBC units (Linguistics, Computinc Sciences),
and from the University of Victoria and Aizu University in Japan.

<h3>Area</h3>
Logic programming is the art of using logic to describe knowledge in a
more human-oriented way than is possible with traditional programming
languages. This is achieved by describing a problem domain in terms of
facts and rules written in a simple subset of first-order logic. A hidden
theorem-prover can then solve a particular problem in that domain by
deducing, as needed, further facts from the facts and rules stored. Thus we
can program declaratively, largely in terms of what needs to be done,
rather than of how to do it. Logic programming has become the heart of the
Fifth Generation Computing project.

<h3>Objectives</h3>
The group's objectives are:
<ul>
  <li>To further the state of the art on the theoretical and practical
       aspects of developing declarative programming tools (in particular,
       logic programming, functional programming, constraint logic programming
       and logic grammars);
  <li>To investigate the uses of these tools for concrete Fifth Generation
       Computing applications, and to facilitate result transfers and
       collaborations with other academic units and with industry.
</ul>
<h3>Specific Research Interests</h3>
        Building on existing logic or functional
programming tools, our group develops new tools (e.g., logic grammars),
investigates their theoretical and implementation aspects, and develops
Fifth Generation software in areas such as natural language processing
(front ends to knowledge-based systems, analysis, generation, and
translation), linguistic theory automation, deductive databases, knowledge
representation, constraint logic programming, hardware design,
probabilistic systems, and expert systems. Related areas, such as neural
networks and parallelism, are also investigated.
<p>
Collaborations Group members have a solid record of successful
collaboration with industry, including a record-setting research contract
with IBM Canada for generating machine-readable error messages, a research
contract with the French government for the automatic consultation of
industrial catalogues in French, and two research contracts with the
Canadian Workplace Automation Research Centre in Laval for the automatic
translation of agricultural reports. The group also has collaboration
agreements with european universities. For discussing further potential
collaborations, please contact the group's Director, Dr. Ver&ocute;nica Dahl, at
(604) 291-3372.

<h3>Equipment</h3>
       The group's laboratory, located in ASB 10855, contains a SUN
Sparcstation IPX which runs Quintus Prolog, a MacIntosh  LCII which runs
ALS and LPA Prolog, and IBM AT personal computer, and several video
terminals. Both the SPARCStation and the Mac were purchased with NSERC, CSS
and PRG Equipment Grants. The IBM AT  and the terminals were purchased with
funds from an IBM SUR grant and an NSERC Operating Grant, respectively.

<h3>Acknowledgements</h3>
       The group gratefully acknowledges financial support from
NSERC, CSS and PRG in the form of infrastructure and equipment grants, and
is also grateful to SFU and CSS for the use of their facilities.
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